An eye for an eye: Iranian court orders man to lose an eye and an ear after acid attack on student, 22, outside college

Punishment: According to the Sharia law, which punishes murder with death - an eye-for-an-eye - the accused, Hamid, has been ordered to lose an eye and an ear after he attacked another man, blinding him and burning his ear

A court in Iran has ordered a man to lose an eye and an ear as punishment for blinding another man and burning his ear in an acid attack.

The accused, identified only as Hamid, was also ordered to pay blood money after he was found guilty of the attack five years ago.

Hamid claimed he had mistaken his victim – identified only as Davoud – for a former classmate who had bullied him at college, reports Iran's semi-official Fars news agency.

'In college, some of the classmates bullied me so much that we had to move from the city I was living in to another one. This was carved in my mind and I couldn't get over it,' he said, according to Fars.

'I bought acid and went back to my former college and waited for some of the classmates to come out. When he [Davoud] came out, I followed him and threw acid on him and I also injured my own legs by doing so.'

Victim Davoud was 22 at the time of the attack and denied ever meeting Hamid - and he claimed that the two-year age gap between them meant they could never have been in the same class.

In Iran citizens are supposed to obey Sharia law, a penal code that hands out what are perceived to be harsh punishments by Western culture for crimes, transgressions, curtailing civil rights, and violating human rights.

The eye-for-an-eye, or tooth-for-a-tooth, punishment is legal under the Sharia code of gisas, which allow retribution for violent crimes – hence why there are a number of public hangings for alleged murderers.

In November 2008 Majid Movahedi was sentenced to lose both eyes in a similar case, having been found guilty of throwing acid at Ameneh Bahramia, a woman who refused to marry him.

It is unclear whether the sentence has yet been carried out.

In October, however, Iranian authorities chopped off the hand of a convicted thief at a prison in the central city of Yazd.

Outcry: Iran has been criticised for sentencing Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, 43, to be stoned to death for adultery

In recent weeks Iran has been criticised for sentencing Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, 43, to be stoned to death for adultery.

She has so far escaped the sentence because of the international outcry surrounding her case.

Iran has executed at least 200 people in the past 10 months, according the human rights website rahana.org